2018 
         Curriculum Integration  
         MARINO INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION  
         DR KARIN BACON 
                  How do we coherently express an intention of curriculum integration in a re-devised Primary School 
                  Curriculum? 
                   
                  In the consultation on curriculum structure and time conducted by the National Council for Curriculum 
                  and Assessment [NCCA] one of five main themes to emerge was that there was broad agreement for 
                  using a more integrated curriculum structure for infant classes [NCCA, 2018, 7]. More broadly, the 
                  benefits of thematic and integrated approaches were noted and respondents felt… “there was a natu-
                  ral progression from themes to curriculum areas to subjects [NCCA, 2018, 8]. The purpose of this pa-
                  per is to examine how to coherently express an intention of curriculum integration in a re-devised Pri-
                  mary School Curriculum and in so doing identify the benefits and challenges of such an approach. Spe-
                  cifically the paper focuses on examining the following questions: 
                      •   What is an integrated curriculum? 
                      •   What does an integrated curriculum look like? 
                      •   Where can we find learning presented in an integrated way at the moment? 
                      •   What are the possible benefits of presenting curriculum in an integrated way? 
                   
                   
                  What is an integrated curriculum? 
                           
                  Before any consideration of how curriculum integration can be expressed coherently it seems im-
                  portant if not essential to start by asking the question:  What is curriculum integration? 
                  The term “integrate” means to render something whole or at least to provide some sort of 
                  unity. This second sense is perhaps more appropriate here as there are different ways in 
                  which the diverse elements of curriculum can be given unity. For instance, a curriculum 
                  could be given unity around a set of outcomes, it could be given unity on the basis of peda-
                  gogical approach, it also be given unity in its approach to integration. Curriculum integration 
                  is therefore understood and presented by educators in a wide variety of ways and there are 
                  even more variations in practice [Hurley, 2001].  Integrated curriculum is also not a new 
                  phenomenon. For example, in the 1960s and influenced by the thinking of Dewey [1956], 
                  there was a movement of educators in the United States which promoted an integrated cur-
                  riculum based on the pedagogical and even epistemological principles of constructivism 
                  which proposed that learners ‘construct’ their own knowledge and understanding and can 
                  be aided and motivated by teaching approaches that begin with the learners’ prior learning.  
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       One clear curriculum expression of this progressive movement was the “project” method, 
       where children completed a project which was experience based, offered learner choice, 
       promoted collaborative work with the understanding that the group took full responsibility 
       for its learning. Later, elements of this method were incorporated into not only project-
       based unified curricula but also other ways of unifying and integrating curriculum through 
       problem-based, challenge-based and even inquiry-based learning. 
       Despite there being many ways in which we can demonstrate unity or integration, there is 
       ongoing demand for one general definition of integration. However, it would seem reasona-
       ble, in view of the demand that curriculum retains a constant openness to new possibilities 
       and to change, that this tendency is avoided and that there is a continued debate on the ad-
       vantages or otherwise of different approaches to integration which may be more applicable 
       in different cultures, times and situations. Thus to begin to answer the question posed in 
       the title of this section, it can be said that the expression of an integrated curriculum will 
       have coherence and validity only when it comes about as a result of awareness of time and 
       place and of debate, the kind that is happening at the moment in Ireland supported by the 
       NCCA.  
       When attempting to define integrated curriculum it is necessary to look at related terms as-
       sociated with it. There needs to be shared and agreed understanding of terms such as subject 
       or discipline, topic or theme. So I highlight some of these that are then used in the rest of the 
       paper. In distinguishing between a [school] subject and a discipline, I draw on the work of 
       Deng’s who defines a subject as “an area of learning within the school curriculum that consti-
       tutes an institutionally defined field of knowledge and practice for teaching and learning” He 
       goes on to define a discipline “as a field or branch of learning affiliated with an academic 
       department within a university, formulated for the advancement of research and scholarship 
       and the professional training of researchers, academics, and specialists”. He acknowledges 
       that school subjects can be traditional academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and 
       geography that could have direct affiliations with their parent academic disciplines.  
       Currently, and in the context of a culture that is focused on economic progress but also on 
       the problems faced by post-industrial societies and the planet, integrated approaches to 
       curriculum are often defined around the idea of the integration of knowledge disciplines. As 
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       a result, we have the integrating ideas of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, intradiscipli-
       narity and transdisciplinary together with ideas about the learner’s prior knowledge, work-
       ing from experience and generating enduring understanding. Some of these and other fea-
       tures of ‘constructivist disciplinarity’ forms of curriculum integration include the structuring 
       of curriculum around thematic units, place-based learning and project-based learning.  
       Returning to the question of ‘what is curriculum integration?’ Curriculum integration is pos-
       sible on the basis of epistemology, pedagogical approach and/or other over-arching princi-
       ples. In general it can be said that curriculum integration, whatever its basis, expresses an 
       attempt to structure the forms of human knowledge and understanding with consequent 
       skills and competencies in order to bring about human flourishing in societies, economies 
       and cultures. Practically, curriculum integration occurs when learners confront personally 
       meaningful questions and engage in collaborative experiences that answer those questions 
       [Beane, 1997]. Murdoch suggests that “..an integrated curriculum is more about the organi-
       zation of learning experiences to ensure valid connection between disciplines” [Murdoch, 
       2015, p.43]. Taking up the idea of constructive learning and disciplinarily but in somewhat 
       different terms, Rose and Woodhead define cross-curricular integration as “..a mode of cur-
       riculum organization, frequently enquiry-based, combining aspects of various subjects un-
       der a common theme’ [1992, 21]. Pring [1973] distinguishes between interdisciplinary [the 
       use of the methodologies and language of more than one discipline to pursue an inquiry] 
       and integration [the unity between forms of knowledge around problems issues and con-
       cerns]. 
        
       So, a strong argument can be made for basing curriculum integration around the two ideas 
       proposed here, first the idea of bringing traditional knowledge disciplines together in the 
       service of fundamental and important problems and questions and secondly the pedagogi-
       cal idea of Deweyan constructivism where a learner’s prior knowledge is incorporated into 
       new understanding .  
        
        
        
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